The crew

We all know it takes a village to raise a child. What we didn’t quite realize was that it also takes a village to rehab a property. Our little family includes:

• Debra the realtor – Debra’s been in West County for years. She not only knows everybody, she knows every house. She flat out refused to show us anything in the floodplain or near a meth house. We owe her.
• Kayte the insurance guru, friend of Debra – you try getting insurance on a 120-year old property with bugs and dry rot but no insulation or heat. Seriously.
• Doug the contractor – Doug is the 30,000 foot guy. He’s also big – 6’8” – which may be why, when there’s a choice to be made, he always advocates the roomiest solution. (Come to think of it, it may be why he likes the Schoolhouse – it’s got 11 and a half foot ceilings.) He’s got tons of ideas, many of them very cool, and he never gives up. “Let’s do this” are his favorite words.
• Vincent the foreman. He’s the person on the ground who has to reconcile Doug’s and our big ideas with the inspector’s requirements and the realities of plywood, beadboard, and building codes. He also has some really great ideas.
• Lucas the tree guy – built like Arnold in his youth, Lucas can climb anything, even a redwood tree.
• The Guys – They all speak Spanish; most speak a little English as well. They are incredibly hard working and patient and versatile; they are willing to turn their hand to anything.
• Damien the roofer – he and his crew  move so quickly and with such disregard for the fact that they’re on a steep, slippery surface 30 feet above the ground that I can’t even stand to watch them on the roof.
• Jim the hauling guy – A job like this generates a frightening amount of waste. Everything that’s not salvageable ends up in a huge pile. Jim comes by every couple of weeks and makes it disappear.
• Bret and Mike, the electricians – both of them are going through divorces. Nuff said.
• Ken the plumber – we have never met him. His mother’s sick and he is taking care of her, so his attendance can be unpredictable, but he does good work.
• Juan Carlos, the heating guy, who with just one helper put in an entire central heating system in a day.
• The Inspector – we drew the short straw on this one. At one point, years ago, he worked for Doug. Doug doesn’t remember him, but the Inspector seems to think it ended badly. You’d think there would be some provision for this, like a judge recusing himself from a case in which he has an interest, but it doesn’t work like that at Sonoma PRMD, so we are stuck with an inspector who clearly has it in for our contractor. I call him Inspector Dick (not, obviously, to his face).